Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line • Hacker News Board

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#291

Post by alan_cx » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:14 PM UTC

pekk wrote: post #207

jQueryIsAwesome wrote: post #142

Well, TSA will start checking marathonists anytime soon. Ban me or whatever you need to do but the reality is that one bomb and Americans cry, while at the same time incentivate thousands of bombs and deads in Mexico for their useless "war on drugs" and also creating pointless wars around the world (eg. Iraq)

You are making political excuses for murder.

Please learn the massive difference between "excuse" and "reason".

It drives me insane when people try to explain something, and someone replies, "oh, that that excuses it, does it?".

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#292

Post by taurath » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:14 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #248

SODaniel wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 34s BREAKING NEWS: Police getting multiple reports of unexploded devices around Boston 3.38 pm Central time. Update: The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 28s RT @billy_baker: "It's not safe to be here." - Boston Police evacuating Commonwealth Avenue mall at Gloucester. 3.45 Central time. Update: The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 1m Boston Police: If anyone knows of any information call about exp…

The thing I don't get, is if you know there are multiple devices, any opfor with half a brain is going to put them in the mass transit for follow up. So why evac people when sheltering in place is almost certainly safer? The TLDR is don't create a juicy concentrated target when you know for certain that someone is currently aiming at juicy concentrated targets. Also if its an ongoing event, shelter in place means peo…

Transit is much harder and has a much stronger security presence - people in general are also far more alert for suspicious packages. It would be much tougher I'd think to get something like this onto a subway rather than a huge crowd.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#293

Post by noonespecial » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:14 PM UTC

6thSigma wrote: post #272

noonespecial wrote: post #138

The worst part for me (and I really am feeling bad about this) is that I should be concerned about the victims right now, but I can't stop thinking about what freedoms I'll be losing as a result of this.

The fact that this is the top comment for this thread makes me sad.

To be quite honest, me too. I expected it to just be background radiation: I too feel badly, conflicted and confused. I didn't expect this.

Sitting at the top like that it really does start to look like soap-boxing or attention whoring. Apologies all, I really didn't mean it that way.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#294

Post by doron » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:14 PM UTC

noonespecial wrote: post #138

The worst part for me (and I really am feeling bad about this) is that I should be concerned about the victims right now, but I can't stop thinking about what freedoms I'll be losing as a result of this.

I think it largely depends on who will be found as the culprit.

If it would be found that this is an Islamist terror attack the aftermath will be much more pronounced then a scenario where the blame will be on say some extreme right wing group.

Much of the lose of freedom we all suffer from is due to entrenched xenophobia becoming political agenda, it seems much harder to enact changes when the criminals are white Americans ala Timothy McVeigh or some horrific mass shooting

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#295

Post by film42 » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:15 PM UTC

VonGuard wrote: post #114

austenallred wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will do. It is by no means ready for release, but you know...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, it's gone... Shouldn't have told everyone about it. Clearly it's quality made it viral.

It's pretty good at holding traffic. Not so much when it comes to curious "stop by, see what's up, open a websocket, leave." But we're working on making it better, and it is back and running smooth now. Thanks for checking it out :)

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#296

Post by Kequc » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:15 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #248

SODaniel wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 34s BREAKING NEWS: Police getting multiple reports of unexploded devices around Boston 3.38 pm Central time. Update: The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 28s RT @billy_baker: "It's not safe to be here." - Boston Police evacuating Commonwealth Avenue mall at Gloucester. 3.45 Central time. Update: The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 1m Boston Police: If anyone knows of any information call about exp…

The thing I don't get, is if you know there are multiple devices, any opfor with half a brain is going to put them in the mass transit for follow up. So why evac people when sheltering in place is almost certainly safer? The TLDR is don't create a juicy concentrated target when you know for certain that someone is currently aiming at juicy concentrated targets. Also if its an ongoing event, shelter in place means peo…

It's easier to destroy than it is to create, for example create safety for the people there.

People outside a certain radius of the initial attack are almost certainly safer. The only thing you can do is get everyone out of the area. Keeping everyone there it seems... I'm confused about what the goal would be. You've got to move everyone out of there eventually so do it. I'm just trying to picture the huge amount of resources it would take to try and quarantine.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#297

Post by nailer » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:15 PM UTC

anu_gupta wrote: post #271

CleanedStar wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This idea is completely inane. The Volunteers declared war against the England that was on their soil in 1916, that they would shift suddenly to a war against the U.S. is ridiculous. Also, purposefully killing civilians gathered en masse without warning is more along the lines of British Army terrorism (Bloody Sunday, Amritsar), not the Irish volunteers who give warnings and tend to attack military targets, back when…

Honestly, WTF are you talking about? The Harrods bombing, the Lloyds building, Eniskillen were all aimed at civilians. Take your biased ignorance elsewhere please.

The police were notified about the Lloyds / Bishopsgate bombing and the Harrods bombing by the IRA, who has a long history of doing that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Bishopsgate_bombing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrods_bombing

The Eniskillen bomb was aimed at British soldiers and thus no warning was given.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day_bombing

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#298

Post by joahua » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:15 PM UTC

larrys wrote: post #268

bmelton wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt the same way. My first thought was that I was glad there weren't any assault weapons involved, for which I was immediately ashamed. Immediately after that I was disgusted that Bloomberg.com wanted me to watch an ad for a new Mercedes before I could check on the well-being of my fellow humans. I'm not proud of my thoughts, and I'm not proud of the hundred or so sarcastic remarks that I've thought of since I fir…

" Immediately after that I was disgusted that Bloomberg.com wanted me to watch an ad" Are you suggesting that they should have some automatic kill switch implemented in advance which they can hit to show sensitivity? [1] Networks also run commercials to make money it's part of how they can afford to do what they do. Of course I've seen cases where networks don't run commercials on rare occasions. [1] And why do they…

I work for a large media organization and we have the ability to suspend advertising in response to crisis events. I'd assume other major outlets would have equivalent capabilities.

At the end of the day advertisers don't want to be associated with certain stories, and there's a public good imperative that drives rapid, open access in these tragic situations that overrides commercial interest even if that were of concern.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#299

Post by anigbrowl » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:15 PM UTC

larrys wrote: post #268

bmelton wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt the same way. My first thought was that I was glad there weren't any assault weapons involved, for which I was immediately ashamed. Immediately after that I was disgusted that Bloomberg.com wanted me to watch an ad for a new Mercedes before I could check on the well-being of my fellow humans. I'm not proud of my thoughts, and I'm not proud of the hundred or so sarcastic remarks that I've thought of since I fir…

" Immediately after that I was disgusted that Bloomberg.com wanted me to watch an ad" Are you suggesting that they should have some automatic kill switch implemented in advance which they can hit to show sensitivity? [1] Networks also run commercials to make money it's part of how they can afford to do what they do. Of course I've seen cases where networks don't run commercials on rare occasions. [1] And why do they…

They're not running commercials on TV right now, but I agree that it's unrealistic to expect websites to just switch into non-commercial mode on the fly.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#300

Post by gyardley » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 9:16 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #273

gyardley wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most likely change to your freedoms is 'none whatsoever' -- tragedies on this scale don't threaten society as a whole and therefore are dealt with by existing laws.

9/11 didn't threaten society, either. Just a few nutcase cultists who got lucky with a single attack that they couldn't sustain.

Perhaps. That wasn't particularly evident at the time.